THE CITY OF ADELAIDE
by Joe Earl
Forgotten on a slipway at Irvine near the Clyde,
Lays a legend of a sailing ship, her timbers grey and dried,
Older than the Cutty Sark she’ll soon be lost forever,
Unless there is the funding with pretty strong endeavour.
She’s a clipper from the early days of perfect ship design,
That voyaged to Australia and set a record time,
Under first class seamanship, by the Captain’s hand,
She carried out the emigrants who stocked that pleasant land.
One quarter million people in those Southern spheres,
Can trace their roots to passages in those early years,
Aboard this marvellous clipper, their forebears travelled out,
Through the Roaring Forties sailing East about.
Built in 'sixty four, by a man named William Pile,
Launching her from Sunderland in the British Isle,
Then twenty three long voyages returning round the Horn,
Driven by the fickle wind and seamen’s hearty brawn.
Composite of iron frame with hardy elm and oak,
Cabins for the colonists, special and bespoke,
In the name of preservation and history maritime,
It’s worthy of a mention if only here in a rhyme.
Sadly now she’s overlooked, an icon of the past,
Crying out for refit and rigging of her masts,
She could be overhauled again to remind us of the time,
When brave descendants ventured out and she was in her prime.
About the Poet
Joe Earl was born in Sheffield in 1941. He left home at the age of 14 to attend the training ship 'Indefatigable' in Anglesey, after almost two years there, he went to sea as Deck Boy in the Merchant Navy. He later obtained his Master's certificate and commanded ten ships during his career including five years as Captain of the Bristol Steam Navigation's 'MV Apollo'. In 1991 he became a Tug Master working out of Avonmouth and Portbury until taking early retirement in October 2000. He now lives in Sand Bay, Weston-Super-Mare.
Joe Earl has written two books containing mostly seagoing verse, one called The Men Who Missed The Tide and the other I Am A Western Ocean Mariner.
Click here for other poems by Joe Earl.
